Blessed by Night

Chapter 249: A Parent’s Nightmare

At some point, one would have thought that it was the norm to grow tired of swimming.

Those people had never met Camille Monica Saint.

In the early hours of the morning, the young girl woke up from her hibernation alongside all of her loving parents.

The first thing she did when she woke up was give herself a moment to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

She sat up from the covers while blinking slowly, and staring off into space like she wasn't all there.

After two minutes of this, she looked at her cacophony of parents and began to choose which one she was going to make get up with her.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe...

"Bu.."

Camille crawled across a sleeping Sei and Bianca to arrive right on top of Anna's chest.

Very gently, she poked her sleeping cheeks in the hopes that she would open her eyes.

Annalise Grey had been two things all her life.

Mean as hell and a sleep addict.

When she was in juvie, even the guards wouldn't try their hand at waking her up for fear that she would bite off their ear like a 98 pound Mike Tyson.

PG hadn't woken up his niece since she was 13 because he was worried that she would beat his ass and tie his pubic hair to a doorknob before slamming it closed.

Anna's teachers wouldn't even wake her up if she slept in class, they would just continue teaching while writing her up silently.

And yet, little four month old Cami was waking her mother up without a care.

At that moment, an utter miracle occurred.

Instead of Anna lashing out from pure instinct, she cracked one of her eyes open and spied at the young girl sitting on her chest.

"Mornin' sugar…- Are you just waking up..?"

Camille nodded cutely, and Anna felt her formerly black heart starting to warm up by leaps and bounds.

"Need help going to the potty?"

Camille started to shake her head no... but then realized that the answer was actually yes.

"Alright, come on mamas." Anna sleepily lifted herself out of the covers while holding onto the seven pound baby.

Four minutes later when the both of them emerged from the bathroom, Anna made a beeline for the bedsheets with her eyes only half open.

"Ama!"

"Hm..? What's wrong?"

Cami pointed to her plastic floaties that were sitting up on the other side of the room beside the door.

Immediately, Anna grimaced and let out a small whimper.

"Cami... can't we wait until noon to go swimming today?"

Camille didn't say anything, but her eyes became noticeably larger and almost tear filled.

Anna melted like a pad of butter on a hot skillet. "Well... Can we at least wake daddy first so that he can be miserable with- I mean, feed us?"

"...Aba."

"That's my girl." Anna gave Camille a small kiss on the cheek before walking over to the futon area.

Malachi was pinned between a haphazardly snoring Nadine and a drooling Joanne, and it seemed like he was right at home.

He was sleeping so cutely that she almost didn't want to wake him.

...Just almost though.

Smiling mischievously, Anna hovered just over Malachi's head.

"Wakey, wakey, daddy~ It's time to go swimming."

Nano seconds after the words left Anna's lips, Malachi's eyes flashed open.

-

"...This isn't what I had in mind."

Anna showed no signs of listening to Malachi's complaints as she rested comfortably in his lap.

It was a cool morning, which meant the water was even colder.

Malachi, Anna, and Camille were the only ones outside on the river bank, which meant he was free to complain as loud as he wanted.

He could only go as far as putting his toes in the water, as for some reason really cold temperatures seemed to affect him in a way that they never had before.

He couldn't for the life of him figure out why.

"Ssss...."

Manda unwrapped himself from around his bicep and encircled Anna's waist before closing it's eyes once again.

'Oh... That's right, I forgot about that. Does this mean I'm cold blooded now?'

Thinking up a quick solution on the spot, Malachi decided to ditch his body altogether.

His skin, flesh, hair, and bones all burned away into oblivion, leaving behind only a mass of darkness in the shape of a man, with swirling nebulas inside of his body and numerous clusters of stars spread throughout.

His tails did not disappear in this form and the serpent quartet also received an updated look.

Though after taking a moment to analyze themselves, they didn't appear to care very much and went back to business as usual.

As far as facial features went, Malachi still had none other than a mouth filled with sharp teeth, four of which were longer than normal.

Anna felt the texture of her fiancé's body change and she opened one eye to look behind her.

"..."

"...What? " Malachi's voice was a bit distorted, but it was still as charming and southern as ever.

"...Have we ever boinked when you were like this?"

"What are you saying in front of munchkin…?" Mal asked exhaustedly.

"I said boinked!" Anna defended.

Camille was ignoring both of her parents and was having her own fun time splashing around in the water.

Since she wasn't looking, Anna snuck her hand behind her back and started to slide it up Mal's thigh.

"I don't have one on me right now, Anna. It's inconvenient."

"But you can grow one, yea?"

"...Why are you so sexually charged?"

"I dunno, maybe it's an addiction, or a little bit of body dysmorphia... probably both."

"Wow... me too, I think. Plus this N'Kai desire to procreate."

"We should probably be in therapy."

"We really should..."

The two of them sat in silence for a couple of moments longer, watching Camille fill a bucket with water and then dump it over her own head.

"Wanna boink after this?"

"It's like you read my mind."

While the two of them were laughing and hugging, they heard a sound that would have terrified most parents everywhere.

*Splash!*

Looking around, the two of them searched for their young daughter yet found only a mass of disturbed water where she once stood.

"Munchkin!" Malachi called lazily.

A moment later, Camille popped her head up from out of the water; just fine, but curious.

"Try not to wander off too far, yea? You'll give your old man a heart attack." Anna joked.

'..Who the hell are you calling an old man..?'

Camille nodded before dunking her head back underneath the water, and swimming more efficiently than a seal.

Something that the group had to learn the hard way this weekend was that Camille and her father were expert swimmers.

And by experts, I mean their bodies were literally adapted for water.

They already had webbed hands, but when enough of their body was submerged under water, they grew gills along the sides of their necks, and their eyes developed a special membrane-like filter designed to keep out any dirt or debris.

Bianca nearly fainted the first time that Cami suddenly flopped underwater with no prior warning and came back up like nothing was wrong.

But through that experience they had learned that she could stay under as long as she wanted with virtually no repercussions.

Once the two of them were alone, Anna finally decided to address a topic that she had been avoiding during this weekend.

"I haven't said anything because I know how you feel about the situation, but… I really don't like that she touched you and tried to snake us behind our backs like that."

"Anna-"

"B-But I… I also think… no, I know that I would have felt the same way in her position. Even now… there isn't a day that I don't want to give you my first everything. And… I can't imagine the person I would become if I ever lost you for good."

Malachi smiled even with his nightmarish demeanor on display.

"So… does that mean I can count on you not to hurt her?" Malachi asked, half joking and half not.

Anna seemed to think about it for a moment before shaking her head in denial.

"Yeah… I can't promise like I'll be able to be friendly with her anytime soon, but I know she's important to you. I'll let her keep her bones intact."

Smiling, Malachi tightened his grasp around her and planted a few kisses on her cheek.

He glanced at the water discreetly before he brought his mouth closer to her pierced ears.

"How long… do you think she'll be under the water?"

-

In the lake, Cami had gotten surprisingly deep.

And yet, she was steadily using her little arms and legs to swim deeper, like a miniature underwater explorer.

She couldn't really tell you what exactly she was looking for, and it was entirely possible that she wasn't really looking for anything at all.

But the wilderness had to be explored!

*Whoosh!*

At that moment, something fast swam past Camille's eyes at the bottom of the lake.

As soon as she caught sight of the otherworldly creature swimming towards her, she let out an instinctive scream under the water.